The Companion's Guidebook
by Supreme.Empress.DragonGirl
Summary: A Field Guide to the Universe as Seen Through the Eyes of the Doctor's Companion. Book One: The Blue Notebook. Megan Cooper finds a blue notebook in a secret compartment. What secrets will it tell her, and what will she do with what she learns?
1. A Letter from Rose Tyler

_To the future Companion who is reading this:_

_Congratulations! I hope you had a fantastic time passing your "initiation" of surviving an alien attack. If you're reading this, you're traveling with the Doctor. Having passed his test, you've probably already figured out that he's impossible. Trust me, he's always like that. I'll do what I can to help you._

_I'm Rose. I was his companion too, once. I traveled with the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. Yes—Ninth and Tenth. The same person, with a different life. You'll understand later—hopefully before you witness it first hand. He may be a lot of fun, but there's a lot of things he tend to forget to tell people, so I'll tell you some of them. There're also some rules that you'll need to follow if you want to have any hope at all._

_I'm from South London. I met the Ninth Doctor when he blew up the shop where I worked. We were being attacked by store window dummies. We faced so much. Of course, if you're reading this, I'm not here. Someday, I'll try and find my way back. Someday. You won't stay here forever, you can trust me on that. So please, please, continue this book._

_This book is going to be a rulebook, a guide, and a journal. The TARDIS is alive, you know, a living ship, and she'll make sure you find this. Please use it like I have—record the lessons you've learned in between running for your life, keep track of where you've been, and tell the ones who'll come after you what your experienced, so that they'll learn better._

_That's all I ask: that you follow these rules and write down the ones you find out._

_Good luck!_

_Rose Tyler, Companion to the Ninth and Tenth Doctors._

-First page of the Companion's Guidebook

Megan Cooper leaned against the doors, catching her breath. She was still winded from the battle. "So. Not exactly a police box, is it? It's..."

"Yes, yes, I know it's bigger on the inside than on the outside," said the Doctor impatiently.

She looked at him cooly. "I wasn't going to say that. Occasionally it's beneficial to be polite, you know."

He looked at her. "That's not fair. _She_ just accepted that I'm occasionally, _unintentionally_ rude. Can I get a refund?"

"Well, I'm not her, whoever—_what did you just say?"_

"Nothing."

Megan stood right in front of him, managing to look down on him even though he was six inches taller than she was. "That wasn't _nothing._ Did you say _can I get a refund?"_

"Nope. Absolutely not."

"Yes, you did." She slapped him, as hard as she could. Which was pretty hard.

He took three steps back, staring at her. "Second time in my life I've been slapped, and the first time by someone I've asked to join the TARDIS crew. If I can't get a refund, can I trade you in for a better one?"

"Do you want to get smacked again?"

"No." He took something silver out of his pocket and pointed it at the floor. It lit up and made a _dzz-zz-zz!_ noise, and a section of the grating moved. He jumped down under the floor and crawled underneath the console and out of sight. "Go explore the TARDIS, why don't you?"

"Alright." She flounced out a door at random.

Down the hallway she went, turning at random, not really caring where she ended up but mapping her path in her head so that she could find her way back. She came to a door at the end of the hallway. "Mind your step," she read from the sign, and entered the room. The stairs took her by surprise, and she went sprawling. Her head hit the wall with a _clang._

She sat up. "Mind your step," she repeated, and made a face. "I sure did _that_ well." She hit her head on the wall, on purpose this time. _Clunk._"Wait," she said. "First it _clanged,_ then it _clunked._ She hit her palm against the wall. _Clunk._ She moved to the right and tried again. _Clunk._ And again. _Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clang._

"Thank you," Megan whispered. She pulled her lipstick out of her pocket and marked an _X_ on the sweet spot. She then ran back to the control room.

The Doctor was still under the console. Megan strolled casually over to the controls. "You've got quite a ship."

"Is that good, or bad?"

"Good."

"Thanks. Don't touch the sonic screwdriver, by the way. It can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing."

She picked up the silver thing he'd used earlier. "It this the sonic screwdriver?"

"I don't know. I can't see it from down here."

"It's long and silver, with a black tip on one end and a...bluish glass tip on the other."

"Yes. Leave it alone."

"Course I will," she said, and pulled an ordinary screwdriver out of the toolbox on the floor. Resting both tools on the console, she asked, "If you don't mind, why a screwdriver?"

There was a loud _clank_ and a yelp before he called, "Let's not start that. I like it, so it doesn't matter what you think."

"I think it's brilliant," she said honestly. She pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of her pocket and began writing a note. "I was just curious."

"Well, it was on-hand," he said. "I had a lot of cabinets to put up."

"That'd make it go faster, I reckon," she said, rolling the note tightly around the ordinary screwdriver. "I mean, a sonic screwdriver would make putting up cabinets faster."

"Yep. And I didn't have to actually, physically drive any screws."

"Yeah." She laughed and picked up the sonic screwdriver. "What else does it do?"

"Opens the floor. Makes computers work. Unlocks things. Well, it opens almost anything. Almost. Makes living plastic dead again...blows up Christmas trees...enters passwords..."

"So, basically, a pretty multipurpose weapon."

"Yep."

"Cool." She ambled towards the door. "I'm going to explore some more, alright?"

"Fantastic."

She followed her path back to the room with the hollow wall, and this time, she minded her step. She frowned as she saw that the _X_ she'd drawn was almost completely gone, but it was enough. She took the sonic screwdriver and turned it around in her hand. There, that had to be the switch. She pointed the tool at the wall and pressed it.

For a second, nothing happened, and then a panel on the wall opened. She reached in and pulled out a blue notebook. Across the front cover were written the words _The Companion's Guidebook,_ and in smaller letters below that, _A Field Guide to the Universe as Seen Through the Eyes of the Doctor's Companion._

"A field guide, huh?" Megan asked herself. "Who wrote this, I wonder?"

She opened it to the first page. There was a letter written there. She read it quickly. "Rose Tyler, Companion to the Ninth and Tenth Doctors," she said, tracing the name with her finger. She stood up and managed to stuff the notebook into her jacket pocket, and returned to the control room.

"Hey, Doctor," she called. "Is your ship self-cleaning?"

"She's alive," he said, his voice muffled through the floor. "I don't know. She doesn't organize things, I don't think..."

"Oh, you'd know," said Megan quietly.

"...but I never have to dust her."

She replaced the normal screwdriver on the console with the sonic one. "Fascinating."

"Yep. Why did you ask?"

"Just wondering."

"Ah."

She waited for a moment, and then said, "Earlier, you said something about—_her._ You didn't say who _she _was. Was her name Rose Tyler?"

There was silence. Not even the clanking of him tinkering with the TARDIS could be heard. Megan had the sinking feeling she'd said something she shouldn't have. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

For another moment, he didn't answer. Then, he said, "Yes. Yes, her name was Rose Tyler."

He didn't speak again, and Megan retreated to the safety of an empty bedroom. She pulled out the notebook and looked at the letter on the first page.

"Who were you, Rose Tyler?" she asked aloud.

The pages of the notebook offered her no answer.


	2. A Game that Two can Play

_First of all, this book._

_I'm using it in a lot of different ways. I don't want you to get confused. This is how it's going to work._

_If there's a number in front of it, it's a Rule. _

_This would be a rule._

_This would be another rule._

_Here's the third rule._

_Pretty straightforward. Now, here's how I'll write an alien profile. These are the bad guys, and the profile will tell you how to handle them if you run into them._

_Name: Species of alien./Planet: Their home world./Danger Factor (1 for not very dangerous, 5 for highly dangerous: 1-5_

_Description: Here, I'll tell you what they look like._

_Weakness: I'll tell you what to do to stop them here._

_Not too hard. I'll also write about different places and times._

_Planet/Time:_

_Description:_

_Watch out for:_

_Last, I'll use this like a journal. I'm going to try and keep journal entries short.. I'll date this in TARDIS time (how long it's been for me since I've joined the TARDIS crew) and the time we were in, as well as telling you the location._

_Years.Months.Days (since I joined the TARDIS)/ Day (that we were in)/ Planet_

_Why we were there/How it should have been/How it was/How it is now_

_Hope you can keep that all straight. Please, I have to ask that you do things that same way. It'll be too confusing for each companion to learn a new system!_

_Now, I'll start with what I know while I'm writing this..._

-From the Companion's Guidebook.

Megan quickly found out that mentioning Rose Tyler to the Doctor was a _very_ bad idea. He didn't speak to her for the rest of the day. It was like she didn't exist.

Well, she could deal with that. Two could play that game, and she was very skilled at it. It came from being the oldest of four children. As far as she was concerned, he didn't exist either. He could save a few worlds without her help and see how he liked it.

That was what he did. Three days—TARDIS days—she ignored him. She could have dragged it out much longer if something quite unexpected hadn't happened.

It was after a particularly long wait as he went out to save some remote part of the universe. She was leaning against the console, wondering what was taking him so long, when the doors opened. The Doctor came in, his head drooping, limping rather badly. Megan bit back of cry of dismay. She wasn't terribly happy with him right now, but he was obviously hurt, and she didn't want that. She wanted to kick herself. This was her fault! What were companions supposed to do if not help the Doctor, stop this from happening?

"Are you okay?" she asked, running over. He was holding his arm at an odd angle, too. "What happened?"

"My arm hurts," he whimpered, looking up at her with big, sad puppy eyes. "And I think I sprained my ankle."

She pushed her hair back. "Alright. Can you hold your arm out?"

He tried to stretch out his right hand, and yelped. He tried again, but this time he used his left hand for support. Megan grabbed his arm and held it up. "You can let go now."

He did. "What are you doing?"

"Tell me if this hurts," she said.

"It hurts already."

"I know." She moved her other hand up his arm. He sucked in a breath. "I'm sorry. I have to."

Suddenly, he howled. She let go. "That _hurts,"_ he said weakly.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I want you to grab your arm and hold it as close as you can, like this." She held her own arm tightly against her chest. "Can you do that?"

He nodded and did so. She moved to sit next to his hurt foot. "This is probably going to hurt, so brace yourself. It shouldn't be too bad." She pushed up his trouser leg and starting unlacing his shoe. Then, she stopped. "You know what? Wait here."

She stood and went to the kitchen to make some tea. "TARDIS," she said aloud, "I need something that'll make him sleep."

A cabinet opened, and she looked through it. After a moment's searching, she found what she was looking for. "Thank you," she said, patting the cabinet door as she closed it. She didn't know much about living ships, but it seemed like a good idea to keep the TARDIS happy. She read the instructions on the back of the bottle aloud. "Use one teaspoon only. Larger amounts may cause heavier sleep, lack of sensation, blah, blah, blah..." She poured somewhat more than a teaspoon into a cup, then filled the rest of the mug with tea. "There we are."

She carried the mug back to the Doctor. "Can you hold that with one hand?" she asked, then changed her mind. "No, you have to hold your arm. Here." She held the tea out and tipped the cup slightly.

He frowned. "Is there anything in it?"

"There's tea, of course."

"I meant, did you put anything in the tea?"

"Course not," she said, a little too definitely.

"Nothing? Nothing at all?"

"Is there something I specifically _shouldn't_ put in it?"

"Yes."

She blinked at him. "Well, what is it? I don't want to poison you."

"You definitely didn't put an aspirin in it?"

She frowned. "Are you allergic?"

"Yes."

"Then why, Doctor, would there be any aspirin on your ship?"

"There isn't."

"Where would I have gotten aspirin?" she asked, annoyed.

"You could have brought some," he pointed out.

"Well, yes." She hadn't thought of that. "I suppose I could have. But I didn't."

"How do I know?"

"Doctor, if there was aspirin in the tea, I would have already gone and dumped it out. I'm not going to murder you. The tea is perfectly safe."

"But is there _something_ in it?"

She sighed. "Yes. It's not going to kill you. It'll make you fall asleep, that's all. I found it in the TARDIS."

"Why do I need to go to sleep?" he asked.

She closed her eyes and counted silently to ten. He was really wearing on her patience. "I need to see if your arm is broken. If you're conscious, you'll be in _intense_ pain."

"Oh." He leaned forwards and drank some of the tea.

"Have all of it, or it won't work." She poured the rest of the tea into his mouth. He swallowed.

"Tastes funny," he mumbled. "Like...like...like...something. Something I cant remember." He looked up at her. "You don't look like Rose..."

"Rest," she said, and his head fell onto his chest.

She grabbed his arm, forcing his fingers to open, and tested the spot where she'd touched to make him howl like that. It gave. His arm was _definitely _broken. She wasn't sure how to deal with that, so she moved on to check his foot. After pulling off his shoe and sock, she saw it was nothing serious, just a sprain. She decided to use a long bit of fabric (she found an old tatty sheet in the closet) and bind his arm up as tight as she could.

When she'd done that, she went and got the blue notebook. She was going to have to find some way to carry it with her. She couldn't just go running back to her room every time she needed to reference it.

She sat down against the console and began to read.

"Rose Tyler," she asked the pages, "what have I done? How can I fix it?"

The rustle of the pages was like an answer, but she didn't understand it any more than she understood the quiet hum of the ship around her.


End file.
